a short story

15 years ago chris and i were married.

our ceremony was at 9am. (i think.)

i had my dress with me in the back and my mom and dad were in the front. (of the car.)

the trip to the temple was relatively quick. 6:30 in the morning makes for quiet highways.

as we drove, thoughts of chris were in my head.

i was excited with that strange, nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

my hair was still wet and i was saying those vain prayers about please letting my hair look good and not frizzy or too big...

the car was quiet as we drove the gw parkway. i remember looking up and seeing 5 deer standing still and close together; fog still at their feet, in the middle of a grassy island.

of couse that was a sign that chris and i were to have 5 children.

5 deer standing still in the middle of the gw parkway = 5 children chris and jayne were to have.

last week chris and i went to the temple. after our session we waited for the distribution center to open, walking the temple grounds. it was early in the morning. the outside was quiet. chris and i were quiet. chris noticed a fake deer staring at him and he thought how odd to have a fake deer on the temple grounds. he then noticed movement and 4 other deer, not fake but real.

"what does that mean jayne?", he asked.

"that wont be happening," i replied.

a few evenings later, chris and i were in bed, and he said he had something he had to say.

"so what are we suppose to do? i can't get it out of my head. are we suppose to have 5 children?"

i list off reasons it wont be happening for me. (there were lots of reasons.)

last night, all 6 of us were in the car. all six of us noticed deer ahead. all six of us counted 5 deer.

chris made me tell the children the story of the morning we got married 15 years ago. then he told the story about the temple deer.

"see! we should have adopted that baby!" voiced ceily.

"yeah!!" yelled everyone else.

"let's adopt an asian baby." some little voice was heard.

"yes. they are smart. we can adopt an asian baby and they can tutor us!" lana added.

"that's true. my friend at school is asian and he is really smart. he has an A+ in advanced math," explained eddie.

chris and i explained it had nothing to do with being asian, but everything to do with working hard. i then added that maybe chris and i would adopt an asian parent and that parent could make our children smart.

apparently, there appears to be some concern about intellect.